70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe

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tool

BuFs #1 mom
Oct 31, 2001
13,365
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Up my ass
70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/07/22/stars.survey/index.html

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Ever wanted to wish upon a star? Well, you have 70,000 million million million to choose from.

That's the total number of stars in the known universe, according to a study by Australian astronomers.

It's also about 10 times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts.

The figure -- 7 followed by 22 zeros or, more accurately, 70 sextillion -- was calculated by a team of stargazers based at the Australian National University.

Speaking at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union meeting in Sydney, Dr Simon Driver said the number was drawn up based on a survey of one strip of sky, rather than trying to count every individual star.

The team used two of the world's most powerful telescopes, one at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in northern New South Wales state and one in the Canary Islands, to carry out their survey.

Within the strip of sky some 10,000 galaxies were pinpointed and detailed measurements of their brightness taken to calculate how many stars they contained.

A whole lot of zeros

That number was then multiplied by the number of similar sized strips needed to cover the entire sky, Driver said, and then multiplied again out to the edge of the visible universe.

He said there were likely many million more stars in the universe but the 70 sextillion figure was the number visible within range of modern telescopes.

The actual number of stars could be infinite he said.

The universe is so big light from the other side of the universe "hasn't reached us yet," The Age newspaper quoted him as saying.

Asked if he believed the huge scale of the universe meant there was intelligent life out there somewhere, he told the paper: "Seventy thousand million million million is a big number ... it's inevitable."
 
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The Dopefish

Eat your veggies!
Apr 17, 2000
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Like I said in IRC, that's 70 sextillion VISIBLE stars.

Not including, as the article says, the stars the light of which hasn't reached Earth yet.

Nor does that include stars which do not give off visible light.
 

The Dopefish

Eat your veggies!
Apr 17, 2000
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tool

BuFs #1 mom
Oct 31, 2001
13,365
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Up my ass
no need to educate me on numbers, I took calculus in Highschool, I seen enough numbers to last a life time.
 

Twisted Metal

Anfractuous Aluminum
Jul 28, 2001
7,122
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Long Island, NY
El Diablo said:
70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe

...

that's a lot of stars :con:

I bet it's also the length of your dick in inches, right?
Or maybe even the amount of money in your pocket right now! :eek:



;)
 

bobtheking

Monkey in a bucket
Dec 1, 2001
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if light from the other side hasn't reached us yet, doesn't that disprove the big bang theory? mass can only go as fast as light, but if the big bang happened, light from one side would have to be on the other side, or it would have moved faster than light?
 

ilkman

Active Member
Mar 1, 2001
3,559
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East coast
Stars are being "born and snuffed out all the time. Maybe those stars whose light hasnt yet reached us have just been "born", in the last few hundred, or maybe thousand years or so.
Also light dissipates over distance too.
 
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Zarkazm

<img src="http://forums.beyondunreal.com/images/sm
Jan 29, 2002
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bobtheking said:
if light from the other side hasn't reached us yet, doesn't that disprove the big bang theory? mass can only go as fast as light, but if the big bang happened, light from one side would have to be on the other side, or it would have moved faster than light?
It may be because space itself expands. I also read the theory that if the universe is infinite, it was already born infinite.
 
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Stryker8

New Member
Jan 26, 2000
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you could actually, there's this company that freezes you in :p
So you could be defrosted by the time we have the ability to leave the system :D
 

das_ben

Concerned.
Feb 11, 2000
5,878
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Teutonia
Of course it's possible that technologies that no man even dreams about now will pop up in the future but unless that happens, it's pretty much impossible to leave our system, let alone reach another one.
 

Myrmidion

Re-edifying the post-panarchic duodonemy
Jan 28, 2001
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Hey, in the Dark Ages I bet no-one ever dreamed of the possibility of powered flight, but now (or at least until Concorde went under) we can cross the Atlantic in under 3 hours - a journey that used to take six weeks :).